Thursday, May 30, 2013

Fox's Stossel Dismisses Aid To Needy With Claim That No One Starved During The Great Depression

FUCKING DOH!!

You have to think that at some seminal point in time, even the few Fox "News" viewers that still have a trace level of functional brain wave activity will come to the not-so-stunning conclusion that they are being used and abused like cheap hookers by Rupert Murdoch and his burgeoning stable of fascist propagandists.

Think about it -- how dreadfully fucking stupid and/or cynically disingenuous does John Stossel have to be to go on national television and make the easily disproved claim that no one went hungry during America's Great Depression? The Gadfly supposes that all of those 1920's and 1930's photo essays in university libraries, museums and history books depicting hunger ravaged Americans, gaunt, suffering and struggling to find their next meal are just a big old commie liberal hoax - not unlike how global climate change and the outbreak of mass shootings are faked crises.

The Gadfly has to admit to you dear reader -- that he has long gotten over the self-flagellating act of feeling sympathy for a sizable portion of impoverished America -- specifically that portion who continues to buy into the utter right wing bullshit that is pumped out incessantly by the likes of the serial liars on Fox and who continues to elect and re-elect to public office these regressive Republican politicians who are nothing more than unfeeling oligarchs masquerading as human beings. It's almost like these sad sack Americans have some bizarre strain of Wile E. Coyote syndrome. Like Wile E., they keep committing the same, self defeating mistakes over and over and over again by electing the Ted Cruz and Michele Bachmann demagogues of the world, and every time they vote those type of vicious and selfish assholes into office again they dementedly expect a wholly different result. At some point, those of us on the outside observing their masochistic behavior just cease having much of anything resembling feelings of empathy with them any more.

Oh - and it goes without saying, that were The Gadfly to ever have the divine luck to meet up with Mr. Stossel in a dark alleyway, Stossel's puckered scrotum sac would be in imminent danger of being on the receiving end of a size 10 steel-toed motorcycle boot.

The Gadfly will be taking a bit of a break this evening -- slinking away from his keyboard megaphone to go forth and frolick at a local musical event. One of The Gadfly's favorite groups of the 90's is in town and as such The Gadfly is heading out and will be kicking up his heels to the melodic frivolity of Steve Harwell and the boys of Smash Mouth:

This is precisely what the American Taliban has in store for women in this country:

MEXICO CITY — El Salvador’s highest court on Wednesday denied an appeal from a woman with a high-risk pregnancy to be allowed to undergo an abortion, upholding the country’s strict law banning abortion under any circumstances.

Beatriz, a 22-year-old woman who asked that her last name be withheld to protect her identity, has lupus and related complications that doctors say will get worse as the pregnancy, which is in its 26th week, continues, possibly leading to serious illness or even death.

Her fetus, which has anencephaly, a severe birth defect in which parts of the brain and skull are missing, has almost no chance of surviving after birth, leading her doctors to urge an abortion to protect Beatriz’s health before it deteriorates further.

But in a 4-to-1 ruling, the court cited the country’s legal “absolute impediment to authorize the practice of abortion,” and ruled that “the rights of the mother cannot be privileged over those” of the fetus.

Yes indeed - savor the glorious Christian humanity which just oozes from that judicial ruling above - "the rights of the mother cannot be privileged over those" of the fetus. Never mind the professional medical prognosis that the aforementioned fetus will be dead on arrival - right your "honors?"

The Gadfly has no doubt that these decent Christian judges will piously, and with heavy heart, approve the state footing the bill for the young mother's funeral expenses when the time comes so that she may be buried along side the malformed, already clinically deceased fetus which, not unlike a ticking time bomb, presently festers in her womb.

Better start paying attention to this shit ladies -- the religious right in this country, whose tentacles weave deep in to the dank muck of right wing Republican politics, view this kind of judicial god role-playing as a model for what they would love to do to women's reproductive rights right here in the good old US of A.

DOBBS: Remember, a little over a year ago, the Joint Chiefs made a similar statement, that in certain instances, intrusions in cyberspace will be considered an act of war against the United States and will be treated as such. What more... what in God's name would it take to create an act of war? You couldn't do this in anything but the virtual world and have their be any doubt about it. It's an act of war.

These wingnut Fox bobbleheads sure do likes them some manly war don't they? They want war with Iran. They want war with Syria. They want to ramp up the failed war in Afghanistan instead of winding down that farcical misadventure. And now they are jonesing for war with one of the world's other major nuclear super power countries - China.

America cannot even finish off the war it is currently engaged in which is against a rag-tag band of flip-flop wearing, falafel eating cave dwellers using 1970's era weaponry. Yet Lou Dobbs doesn't even bat an eyelash in proposing that the U.S. attack another nuclear super power that has a conscripted army 10 times the size of our own volunteer force and weaponry which is just as lethal and advanced as our own.

But if it's war that General Dobbs and the rest of the bayonet wielding dough boys at Fox want -- The Gadfly says, wonderful! As long as Dobbs, Hannity, Limbaugh and the rest of the conservative war lovers, accompanied by every single one of their military service age children, are in the first wave of combat troops to stomp their boots on the ground in the invasion -- The Gadfly humbly offers his steadfast blessing.

Idiots.

The Gadfly really is sick of these stupid fucktards - and wishes more of his fellow Americans would call them out on their bullshit more often.

Wednesday, May 29, 2013

Yup -- sure is going to be a lot less laughter around the pages of this shitty old blog:

. . . . . then again - perhaps not:

The simple truth of the matter is that the conservatives have a very, very deep (as in scary deep) bench of Bachmann grade Cuckoo Puffs legislators, and thanks to a decade of gerrymandering, they have pretty much guaranteed these buffoon's perennial re-elections by their mentally unstable, zombie constituencies.

So as it is, there is comfortable optimism on The Gadfly's part that his lofty days of mercilessly mocking the GOP's wingnut brigades shall endure, and likely even prosper, for the foreseeable future.

Rep. Michele Bachmann (R-Minn.) announced early Wednesday that she will not seek a fifth term in office.

The decision to bow out of the 2014 race was announced in a YouTube video on the congresswoman's website and on her Facebook page.

Although Bachmann didn't give an exact reason for her departure, she explained that an eight-year term in the House was enough.

It is a devastatingly sad day in Dirty-Fucking-Hippieville.

Shelly Bachmann's jarring public lunacy and unrestrained penchant for spouting some of the most ludicrous lies ever to flap forth from the lips of an American politician have truly been the mother of all gifts that keep on giving -- primarily for comedians and neophyte political bloggers such as yours truly - The Gadfly.

From the moment Crazy Shelly stepped on to the national stage with her televised star-crossed mugging of George W. Bush after a SOTU address, right up to the moment most recently when she was bragging like a giddy schoolgirl in a campaign video to her Minnesota constituents that she personally had engineered the 37th utterly futile GOP attempt to repeal Obamacare, Bachmann has been the ultimate comedic relief to the horrifying prospect that her pet project, The Tea Party, would ultimately complete their goal of hijacking the Republican party and appeal to a sufficient number of fellow deranged voters to actually succeed to any measurable extent at shaping national policy.

Fortunately for all of us - Shelly's Loony Toons views and daffy lies, while not bonkers enough to dissuade Iowa Straw Poll voters from selecting her in 2011 as their candidate of choice in the run-up to the 2012 GOP primaries, simply snowballed into such a farcical mess of idiocy and psychotic gobbledygook that even the GOP base eventually had to turn their prayerful hopes and eyes toward those other progenitors of sanity and truthfulness (Donald Trump, Herman Cain, Rick Perry, etc., lol) to be their saintly savior.

Nonetheless -- The Gadfly sincerely does wish to thank Crazy Shelly for her political service. It has been a helluva boisterous and laugh inducing ride -- one for the political and comedy ages.

Monday, May 27, 2013

The Gadfly has two thoughts he would like to share with you dear reader on this Memorial Day.

First - being a U.S. military veteran, The Gadfly has the deepest respect and admiration for those men and women who have volunteered to serve in our armed forces and who are tasked with the sworn duty to defend the Constitution and bear allegiance to same. And it goes without saying that the Gadfly humbly honors those who have paid the ultimate price bravely carrying out their sworn duty on behalf of their fellow countrymen.

Secondly - The Gadfly would ask this question of his fellow Americans - at what point do wars of convenience, wars for natural resources, wars for the sake of enriching the already obscenely wealthy and the powerful military industrial complex, and endless global wars against clandestine enemies, real or perceived, finally compel us to realize the utter futility and stupidity of war? How many more war memorials and Arlington war cemeteries will be needed before we arrive at the sobering conclusion that enough is enough?

The Gadfly spoke previously on the subject of arrogant nationalism and patriotism. It stands to reason that you cannot convince young men to march off in to war without first appealing directly and passionately to their love and reverence of the beloved homeland, and the more fervent and manipulative that appeal, the more submissive they are to the plea.

And there is no better observer of that subject matter than the great Samuel Langhorne Clemens. The Gadfly discovered Mark Twain's "The War Prayer" many years ago while engaged in some personal research on Twain's political and religious views. If you have not read it, do yourself a favor and take 5 minutes out of your busy life to do so. The Gadfly holds no illusions that it will change many minds on the subject of war, but if it makes just a single mind question the wisdom of the people who are incessantly pining for war, then that is about the best result The Gadfly can realistically expect.

Sunday, May 26, 2013

GOP elder statesman Bob Dole confirms what The Gadfly has been stating for years - namely that the modern day version of the Republican party, with the culminating hijacking by the Teabaggers, has mutated in to a doctrinal, uncompromising assemblage of extremists who are void of the positive vision and ideas that would make them deserving of leading America forward into the 21st century:

Former Senate Majority Leader Bob Dole (R-KS) told Fox News Sunday this week that the Senate Republicans are abusing the filibuster and that he doubts he, Richard Nixon, or Ronald Reagan could make it in today’s Republican Party.

Asked his thoughts on the modern GOP, Dole — a former Republican national chairman, the 1976 GOP vice presidential pick, and the 1996 Republican presidential nominee — suggested, to host Chris Wallace, that the party lacks any positive ideas and is no longer a place for even conservative Republicans like himself.

Not that Dole's views matter a whit to the likes of Rand Paul, Michele Bachmann and Ted Cruz, but the fact that he is going public in labeling them as idea defunct authoritarians perhaps will have some sway with the old school GOP establishment and prod them to finally yank the leash on their Teabagging, fundamentalist attack mutts.

Saturday, May 25, 2013

The Gadfly, at intervals, has fielded inquiries from old acquaintances and family whom he has not interacted with for years, who have through social media outlets, become aware of The Gadfly's still evolving political and philosophical views.

A few of these exchanges have produced the obvious question of "what in funky monkey hell has happened to The Gadfly" that has so radically altered his outlook on life and the country in which he was born and cultured in?

The Gadfly of course could pen a novel on the incremental, step-by-step transformation of his midwestern, don't rock the boat, don't question authority traditionalism to his present articulation of a question everything and everyone societal pest -- meaning there is no single, seminal event that has bookmarked his contentedly accepted transformation. At it's most simplistic, it is called growing up and growing old.

And of course, it is only logical that some of those personal exchanges also beget the plaintive question posed to The Gadfly that he please return to the muddle-headed, apathetic, uncaring schmuck of old. But The Gadfly has adamantly defended his worldly metamorphosis on every one of those occasions and usually is responded to with heavy sighs and rumbling grunts of semi-confused disapproval. The Gadfly however is not swayed nor indignant about other's views of who he has become - in fact he relishes the contrast that he can elucidate between his left behind detractors and his present day essence.

With that stated, The Gadfly would like to share this tune that he holds dear to heart, not only for the meaning in the unsophisticated lyrics that The Gadfly has personally interpreted to have meaning for his own journey through life, but also because he's a huge fucking fan of Billy Joel's musical genius.

I don't need you to worry for me cause I'm allright,I don't want you to tell me it's time to come home,I don't care what you say anymore this is my life,Go ahead with your own life leave me alone.

Yes indeed -- The Gadfly has been around long enough to know a miserable failure when he sees it:

“The fact that the police officer chose to prey upon the most vulnerable" is “egregious” but not surprising, he said. He pointed toward policing tactics and policies -- like quotas, the increasing criminalization of America's schools, and the war on drugs -- that put pressure on police to treat normal teen behavior as criminal.

Downing, who is a member of the group Law Enforcement Against Prohibition, also pointed out, “The less fortunate are always targeted."

“Do we ever hear of an undercover operation like this conducted in an exclusive private school, or on a university campus, or on the stages of a movie studio in Hollywood? No, we don't. Why? Because those people would complain, get lawyers and make life miserable for the status quo."

When your war has reached it's zenith with the targeting, entrapment and persecuting of high school kids, it's best to just pack it in and admit that you have lost the war and shift gears toward more sensible and less destructive action.

And it goes without saying that it does not help the situation in the least when the capitalist principles of privatization and profit margins are mixed in to the failure equation of our criminal justice system.

While the house Republicans are frenziedly chasing Obama "scandals" like an attention-starved, rural mutt chasing a postal vehicle down a dusty, back country dirt road, America slips ever closer toward banana republic status.

There is an idiocy about our current national politics that is simply stupefying. We are sitting idly, watching, and suffering, as our nation disintegrates into a run-down backwater. Our airports are a global disgrace. Our railroads, broadband, energy grid all outmoded by international standards. A bridge falls every other day. Our sewage systems are overwhelmed by normal use and collapse in the extreme weather that has become the national norm. Sinkholes now are becoming a life-threatening peril.

At the same time, over 20 million people are in need of full-time work. The construction industry has still not recovered from the housing collapse. The Federal government can borrow money for interest rates near zero. Yet instead of grabbing this opportunity to rebuild the country, Washington is focused on cutting budgets, an austerity that clearly costs jobs and impedes the recovery.

Any business leader with a whit of sense would say this is the perfect time to borrow money to rebuild the country, making investments now that will make us more competitive in the future. That's why the head of the Business Roundtable, former Republican Governor John Engler says it. At the top of his wish list for the economy is borrowing money to invest in roads and infrastructure. The resulting growth will more than repay the virtually free money. We'll end up with a more competitive economy, a healthier and modern infrastructure that will make lives easier and safer, more jobs, more income, more taxes and less debt.

This is literally a no-brainer. Yet when president proposes even a modest infrastructure bill, the Republican Congress rules it dead on arrival.

The Gadfly would postulate, of course, that it takes people with normally functioning brains to recognize the "no-brainer" situation Borosage references when they see it. It also takes moral courage and selflessness in combination with that intellectual acuity to make the hard decisions that will benefit the most people in our society, and advance the human progress of our nation on whole. Unfortunately, at this time, The Gadfly does not see much evidence of those character attributes, to any measurable extent as it is, among this nation's political and business leaders - and that would include many of the people advising the President - and to a certain degree even Mr. Obama himself.

First - the GOTP's (Grand Old Tea Party) venomous hatred of Obama has so blinded them to the economic suffering and struggles of their fellow countrymen that barring their utter and complete defeat at the polls in the upcoming 2014 mid-term elections, and looking ahead, the 2016 Presidential election, the economic hardship and misery that is unnecessarily impacting the real world lives of millions of Americans will continue unabated.

Secondly, and The Gadfly for obvious reasons is somewhat hesitant to go there, what are we to think of people who prioritize their own hatred of a single political figure over the betterment and success of the nation as a whole? One thing The Gadfly most certainly has great difficulty viewing these people as is patriotic - their gratuitous chest beating and flag waving notwithstanding. If someone can coherently explain what exactly about using hate and vindictive political obstruction to thwart the country from seeing to it's citizen's best interests is so patriotic, The Gadfly is all ears.

There is good reason why some of the greatest minds and most important historical figures in civilized mankind's narrative have had the following to say on the subject of patriotism and nationalism:

Patriotism is the virtue of the vicious.~~Oscar Wilde**It is lamentable, that to be a good patriot one must become the enemy of the rest of mankind.~~Voltaire**One of the great attractions of patriotism - it fulfills our worst wishes. In the person of our nation we are able, vicariously, to bully and cheat. Bully and cheat, what's more, with a feeling that we are profoundly virtuous.~~Aldous Huxley**Patriot: the person who can holler the loudest without knowing what he is hollering about.~~Mark Twain**Patriotism is the last refuge of the scoundrel.~~Samuel Johnson**Nationalism is an infantile disease. It is the measles of mankind.~~Albert Einstein**

These men, in their time, were witnesses to the corrosive and destructive ends of unbridled and narcissistic patriotism and nationalistic hubris. Those quotes were their purposeful warnings to future generations. It is The Gadfly's humble view that if America is to succeed as the beacon of democracy and the hope of free people's around the world, it is imperative that we heed those warnings and maintain a close check on the ambitions of the mindless flag wavers and their retrogressive religion of fervent nationalism.

WASHINGTON -- Rep. Tom Cotton (R-Ark.) on Wednesday offered legislative language that would "automatically" punish family members of people who violate U.S. sanctions against Iran, levying sentences of up to 20 years in prison.

The provision was introduced as an amendment to the Nuclear Iran Prevention Act of 2013, which lays out strong penalties for people who violate human rights, engage in censorship, or commit other abuses associated with the Iranian government.

Cotton also seeks to punish any family member of those people, "to include a spouse and any relative to the third degree, "including, "parents, children, aunts, uncles, nephews, nieces, grandparents, great grandparents, grandkids, great grandkids," Cotton said.

The Gadfly will translate: basically what the good Republican Congressman is proposing is that if any American is convicted of violating the Nuclear Iran Prevention Act of 2013, then that conviction automatically extends to the offender's "parents, children, aunts, uncles, nephews, nieces, grandparents, great grandparents, grandkids, great grandkids," innocence and constitutional due process of law be damned.

The Nazis called it "Sippenhaft:"

Sippenhaft was a legalized practice in which relatives of persons accused of crimes against the state were held to share the responsibility for those crimes and subject to arrest and sometimes execution. Many people who had committed no crimes were arrested and punished under Sippenhaft laws introduced after the failed 20 July plot to assassinate Adolf Hitler in July 1944.

The Gadfly, sadly, is not astonished in the least that it just so happens to be a far right, conservative Republican attempting to resurrect an insidious law that was borne of one of the most hideous and murderous political regimes in human history.

God help America if these bastard, right wing lunatics ever gain complete political power in this country.

During her syndicated radio show this afternoon, conservative columnist Andrea Tantarosreacted to the Justice Department’s snooping on the Associated Press and Fox reporter James Rosen by decrying “Obama’s America” and telling her audience if they see any Obama voters, “punch them in the face.”

Thursday, May 23, 2013

TRENTON, N.J. — At one bar, a mixture that included rubbing alcohol and caramel coloring was sold as scotch. In another, premium liquor bottles were refilled with water — and apparently not even clean water at that.

State officials provided those new details Thursday on raids they conducted a day earlier as part of a yearlong investigation dubbed Operation Swill.

Twenty-nine New Jersey bars and restaurants, including 13 TGI Fridays, were accused of substituting cheap booze — or worse — for the good stuff while charging premium prices.

The Gadfly heaves a heavy sigh when he writes this, for he feels at times that he is conversing with a brick wall, but for the sake of actually giving a rat's sphincter about humanity's fate, he will state it again -- you all better start paying attention to this shit boys and girls:

HASKELL COUNTY, Kan. — Forty-nine years ago, Ashley Yost’s grandfather sank a well deep into a half-mile square of rich Kansas farmland. He struck an artery of water so prodigious that he could pump 1,600 gallons to the surface every minute.

Last year, Mr. Yost was coaxing just 300 gallons from the earth, and pumping up sand in order to do it. By harvest time, the grit had robbed him of $20,000 worth of pumps and any hope of returning to the bumper harvests of years past.

“That’s prime land,” he said not long ago, gesturing from his pickup at the stubby remains of last year’s crop. “I’ve raised 294 bushels of corn an acre there before, with water and the Lord’s help.” Now, he said, “it’s over.”

The land, known as Section 35, sits atop the High Plains Aquifer, a waterlogged jumble of sand, clay and gravel that begins beneath Wyoming and South Dakota and stretches clear to the Texas Panhandle. The aquifer’s northern reaches still hold enough water in many places to last hundreds of years. But as one heads south, it is increasingly tapped out, drained by ever more intensive farming and, lately, by drought.

Vast stretches of Texas farmland lying over the aquifer no longer support irrigation. In west-central Kansas, up to a fifth of the irrigated farmland along a 100-mile swath of the aquifer has already gone dry. In many other places, there no longer is enough water to supply farmers’ peak needs during Kansas’ scorching summers.

And when the groundwater runs out, it is gone for good. Refilling the aquifer would require hundreds, if not thousands, of years of rains.

The Gadfly acknowledges he is preaching to the choir for most of those who have taken the time to objectively study and educate themselves on the subject of global climate change. The Gadfly is also quite cognizant of the fact that his words fall on purposefully closed minds and deaf ears for those who believe what Rush Limbaugh and Fox "News" tell them to believe in that climate change is just a big, liberal, hoax. Therefore, this admonition is actually aimed at those fence sitters in the mushy middle, who either don't have the time or the inclination to educate themselves on the issue or who are just innately confused by the starkly contending viewpoints offered forth by those on opposite sides of the political spectrum.

Here is how The Gadfly justifies his own faith in the scientists whose views are that climate change is real, and if nothing is done about it, the planet is in a world of shit. Say for the sake of this conversation that The Gadfly went for a medical exam and was told by doctors that he had a brain tumor and he needed emergency brain surgery to remove it, otherwise he might die. A secondary exam by an accomplished neurosurgeon confirms the diagnosis and agrees to the recommended action. Now - having received that information, would The Gadfly then delay his decision in order to seek out the opinion of his auto mechanic or his drinking buddies on the matter, and give their views equal weight and consideration as those of the medical professionals? To put it bluntly - Fuck no.

Sadly - that is the mindset of the far right in this country. Unable to process and deal with the reality that is staring them right in the face, they instead grasp on to that which is familiar and comforting to them - which for many is the political and ideological advice of their media heroes like Limbaugh, Hannity, Glenn Beck, and the rest of that ilk, or their religious deity whom they believe will just wave his magic wand and fix everything.

But like The Gadfly stated, he holds no illusions that his words are given so much as glancing, disdainful thought by these folks. All that The Gadfly can do is simply to continue talking about this subject in a sane, logical and fact-based manner in the hope that eventually those who do see the light will constitute a large enough majority in the country where our collective influence carries enough clout that our weak-kneed, morally defunct political leaders have no choice but to seriously address our demands for action.

The Gadfly is saddened to see and hear about the tornado devastation wrought in Oklahoma today by nature's fury:

By LAUREN EFFRON and DEAN SCHABNERMay 20, 2013

A mammoth tornado carved a trail of destruction through the Oklahoma City metropolitan area, killing at least 10 people and ripping apart two elementary schools today, local authorities said.

David Barnes, the director of Oklahoma Emergency Management in Oklahoma County, told ABC News that a single twister tore through homes from Newcastle to Moore, a path of 12 miles. The damage was "widespread" and people's homes were completely destroyed, all the way to their foundations, he said.

At least 10 people have been confirmed dead in the storm's aftermath, according to the state's chief medical examiner's office.

"It is absolutely devastating, this is horrific," Oklahoma Lt. Gov Todd Lamb said. "We're going to have fatalities. ... We're going to have significant injuries. ... We just don't know what those numbers are. Schools have been hit, a hospital has been hit, businesses have been flattened, neighborhoods have been wiped away -- we don't have the numbers in yet but it is going to be significant and it is going to be horrific."

The Gadfly wishes the best to the people of Oklahoma affected by this tragedy and hopes that they keep their spirits high as they deal with their present unfortunate circumstances.

Also - let's ensure that these victims get all of the state and federal help that they need to put their shattered lives and communities back together again. More importantly - let us be goddamn sure that we do not emulate the selfish and vindictive example of House and Senate Republicans who unnecessarily delayed relief to the victims of Hurricane Sandy just so they could appease their Teabagging pals by showing them how tough they could be on their dealings with President Obama. You do not play politics when people's lives are in the balance. You do everything in your power to help them out of their tragic situation and you do the bean counting and politicking after the fact -- because that is what decent and caring Americans do when their fellow citizens need their help -- they stick together and do the right thing.

There are times when The Gadfly just has to stare in dejected shame at the level of outright worthlessness to which the mainstream media in this nation has descended to.

Engaging the pernicious oratorical duplicity of Donald Rumsfeld to provide commentary on the trifecta of Obama "scandals", in addition to expounding on the subject of government accountability, truly has to have set a new rock-bottom benchmark for media malfeasance.

Rumor has it that upon hearing of Rummy's agreement to do the NBC interview, Uncle Rupert over at Fox was absolutely apoplectic with jealous rage. The Gadfly has a vision of Rupert Murdoch standing on a mountaintop, waves of flying monkeys soaring in the darkened sky above his head , his brass balls gripped tightly in one hand and swinging smartly to and fro, the other hand clenched in a fist and pumping wildly in to the air -- and all the time the hoary old propagandist is thundering at the top of his lungs, "You dirty, double-dealing bastards NBC! Making a mockery of the American media is my goddamn job! I am the one and only Supreme Emperor of Yellow Journalism and you claim jumpers had better back off of my territory - or else!!"

Jeebus NBC. The unmitigated brilliance of it all! Donald Rumsfeld sought out for expert analysis on the issue of government accountability? Really?? Apparently exhuming the worm ravaged corpse of Dick Nixon for the gig was too much of a booking logistics nightmare and so you settled on the living corpse of ol' Rummy huh? Pathetic.

And this is why The Gadfly long ago gave up hope of getting unadulterated, unbiased, and trustworthy news and information from our corporate network television or cable news outlets.

Sunday, May 19, 2013

It looks like the past few weeks of political ratfuckery by the Republicans is having the desired effect:

Washington (CNN) – President Barack Obama comes out of what was arguably the worst week of his presidency with his approval rating holding steady, according to a new national poll.

According to the survey, which was conducted Friday and Saturday, 53% of Americans say they approve of the job the president is doing, with 45% saying they disapprove. The president's approval rating was at 51% in CNN's last poll, which was conducted in early April.

The Gadfly does not know why conservatives are seemingly incapable of learning from their past mistakes. Their failed attempt to impeach Bill Clinton for his hide the executive sausage dalliance with Monica Lewinsky backfired so spectacularly badly that Clinton left office with the highest public approval rating (74%) in the history of presidential approval polling. And now they are repeating that history with their attempted ratfucking of Obama over the trifecta of goosed scandals which they've been desperately pimping for the past few weeks now.

The Gadfly is not at all averse to investigating the Obama administration for legitimate wrongdoing. But the fact of the matter is that the Benghazi and IRS "scandals" are so obviously partisan fishing expeditions and the AP phone records subpoenaing has national security ramifications, so is it any wonder then that the American people are showing a not so surprising level of apathy towards the GOP's contrived outrage on these issues?

To underscore the futility of it all even further, the Republicans, in their zeal to stick it to Obama, seem to have forgotten that the country is in the midst of one of the worst economic periods in history and it hasn't dawned on them at all that Americans might be a tad more interested in knowing what the GOP's plans are for bringing back jobs, or fixing the nation's irreparably broken health care system, or shoring up Social Security, or immigration reform, or reforming our indisputably corrupt campaign finance apparatus, or even holding the people who directly caused the financial meltdown to begin with accountable for the laws which everybody and their fucking mother knows that they have broken.

The GOP will have their fair chance in the 2014 mid-terms and the 2016 election to present their competing views and policies to the American people. If The Gadfly were advising the GOP honchos, he would recommend strongly that they yank the leash hard on their Teabagging attack dogs and begin the process of demonstrating to the American people the justifications as to why their party is worthy of giving the opportunity to govern America again. If, however, they fail to heed The Gadfly's advice, The Gadfly foresees the Republican party risking becoming a near perennial minority party for years to come (not that that is a terribly bad thing - considering their present attributes).

"The test of our progress is not whether we add more to the abundance of those who have much - it is whether we provide enough for those who have little."

Apparently Rand "Aqua Buddha" Paul has become restless and bored with his fruitless flogging of the Benghazi nontroversy and has transitioned to focusing his beady little Opthamologist eyes on the IRS "scandal":

(CNN) – While the Internal Revenue Service maintains it was not focusing on conservative groups out of political bias, Sen. Rand Paul claimed Sunday there was a "written policy" floating around the agency that said IRS officials were "targeting people who were opposed to the president."

"And when that comes forward, we need to know who wrote the policy and who approved the policy," the Republican senator from Kentucky said on CNN's "State of the Union."

Pressed for more precise details about the memo he was referring to,Paul said he hasn't seen such a policy statement but has heard about it.

Hmmmm -- The Gadfly must admit that he is impressed. For an amateur, this is actually quite a primo bit of political ratfucking by Baby Paul -- an effort that would no doubt bring tears of pride and joy to the eyes of Nixon's original ratfucking posse.

Paul is expertly employing lesson #1 in the dark art of ratfucking. Throw some bullshit claim out in to the public sphere, one that has no basis in demonstrable proof, but is always qualified by a wink-and-nod supporting claim such as "I have heard" or "sources have told me" or "when it comes forward." Then just wait for the stenographers and lapdogs in the MSM (Mainstream Media) to sink their teeth in to the bait and - Voila! - next thing you know it's all over the cable news channels, with Fox "News" of course pimping it as furiously as they can, and the major network news channels regurgitating it ad-nauseam because they are too fucking lazy and incompetent, and at times just willfully complicit, to actually investigate and authenticate the claims before lending legitimacy to them by airing them on the public airwaves.

Yes indeed -- The Gadfly thinks it is going be one very long, very hot summer of political ratfuckery and buffoonery.

Saturday, May 18, 2013

Anyone ever wonder how it is that the big oil monopolies like Shell, Exxon and BP are able to report ever-escalating record profits - even as the world economy is crashing and burning around them?

Here's a hint -- it's not all that different from how the banks are able to do the very same magic profit act and continue shelling out big bonuses to their CEO's and execs at the same time they were begging hat in hand for taxpayers to bail them out.

Observe:

Oil markets fall under the suspicion of price-fixing on a global scale

IT IS a lesson of the past five years that benchmarks in unregulated markets can fall victim to the incentives they create. Subprime mortgages bundled into securities often won high scores from ratings agencies that stood to profit in a busy market. The London Interbank Offered Rate, LIBOR, was sometimes underestimated by banks which were cast in a healthier light by lower interest rates. Has something similar been going on in energy?

That is the suspicion after a series of raids on May 14th by the European Commission’s competition authorities. The commission declared that it feared oil companies had “colluded” to distort benchmark prices for crude, oil products and biofuels.

Radio host Pete Santilli made shocking remarks about former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton, claiming she should be "shot" for being "involved in the killings of American troops."

"Hillary Clinton needs to be convicted. She needs to be tried, convicted and shot in the vagina," Santilli said, Right Wing Watch reports. "I want to pull the trigger."

Santilli criticized Clinton over the Sept. 11, 2012 attack on the U.S. consultate in Benghazi, Libya. He also slammed Clinton over what he called "the fake hunt down of this Obama bin Laden thing":

I want to shoot her right in the vagina and I don't want her to die right away; I want her to feel the pain and I want to look her in the eyes and I want to say, on behalf of all Americans that you've killed, on behalf of the Navy SEALS, the families of Navy SEAL Team Six who were involved in the fake hunt down of this Obama, Obama bin Laden thing, that whole fake scenario, because these Navy SEALS know the truth, they killed them all. On behalf of all of those people, I'm supporting our troops by saying we need to try, convict, and shoot Hillary Clinton in the vagina.

The Gadfly will be the first to admit that the left has it's share of loons, but nothing of the vile magnitude of this demented asshole. And don't fool yourself -- The Gadfly will guaran-fucking-tee you, dear reader, that a good percentage of the Teabaggers, if not openly, privately would agree with this loser's views, and that is what distinguishes right wing extremists from anyone on the left.

The Gadfly is hoping that the Secret Service and FBI will be paying a little visit to this creep to have a little discussion on the subject of why it isn't a very bright idea to openly threaten death to public officials.

During a Financial Services subcommittee hearing the day before, on March 21, 2012, Georgia Republican Rep. Tom Graves also questioned Shulman about similar concerns. Shulman pushed back against allegations that the IRS was targeting groups that advocated for limited government, just as he did at the subsequent Ways and Means subcommittee hearing.

At the March 21 hearing, Graves pointed to concerns from tea party groups that the IRS had unfairly scrutinized them with burdensome questions because of their political ideology. Shulman, who was appointed to the post by President George W. Bush and whose five-year term as IRS commissioner ended in November 2012, told Graves that the agency had followed standard protocol and said allegations that specific groups were being targeted were "off."

This exact same fucking IRS issue has already been investigated by the Republicans in March of 2012. If some of The Gadfly's conservative readers did not quite hear what he just said, The Gadfly will speak up a bit louder. THIS EXACT SAME FUCKING IRS ISSUE HAS ALREADY BEEN INVESTIGATED BY THE REPUBLICANS IN MARCH OF 2012! Better?

So - as it stands - what is really going on here is that the GOP, bereft of any measurable ability to govern the country intelligently and judiciously, is cynically recycling a ho-hum nothingburger of a micro-scandal from 2012 in order to further obstruct President Obama from moving the country forward and managing the people's business as he was fairly and unanimously elected to do so.

Also - note that the report indicates that these actions by the IRS purportedly took place from 2010 to 2012, under the auspices of the previous IRS Commissioner, Douglas Graves, who was a George W. Bush appointee. Mr. Graves adamantly denied any wrongdoing by the IRS at the time of the March 2012 hearings held by the GOP, and insisted the agency was operating under "standard protocol" with their audits of these tax exempt seeking 501(c) groups. And apparently that was a good enough response for the House Ways and Means Committee back in March of 2012 as there were no corrective actions taken by Congress pursuant to those hearings.

So what has changed since March of 2012 to today's freakout by the GOP over THE EXACT SAME FUCKING IRS ISSUE THAT HAS ALREADY BEEN INVESTIGATED BY THE REPUBLICANS IN MARCH OF 2012? Glad you asked.

Ask yourself dear reader - what seminal political event has occurred between March 2012 and May of 2013?

If you answered -- the re-election of the Kenyan, Muslim, socialist, communist, terrorist appeasing, vacationing, umbrella using, teleprompter using negro over a wealthy vulture capitalist, who was financially supported by wealthy industrialists, multi-national corporations, and tax-haven exploiting moneyed elites -- then you win the kewpie doll award.

In summation, The Gadfly will once again state for the record, as with the AP phone subpoenaing case, The Gadfly has no problem with an independent counsel looking in to this issue. However, that counsel needs to be truly independent with neither Democratic or Republican influence or connections whatsoever. But we all know that is not going to happen, because this is a manufactured scandal which the GOP is using as a political cudgel to bludgeon Obama and further obstruct his administration from governing the country. Nothing more. Nothing less.

Ed Kilgore at The Washington Monthly sums it up even more succinctly:

People, people: the IRS wasn’t roaming around the countryside looking for Tea Party groups to persecute; it was responding (yes, poorly, no doubt) to voluntary applications for a tax exemption that has been routinely and massively abused over the years. Nobody’s doors were being kicked down; nobody was being fined or threatened, so far as we know. Yes, a benefit was delayed or withheld to which the applicants might have (or might not have) been entitled as a matter of (really bad, in my opinion) public policy. But any “monster under the bed” was entirely in their own minds...

Friday, May 17, 2013

There are simply times when The Gadfly desires to abdicate his dirty fucking hippie non-violence creed and seek out the nearest piehole agape Teabagger to give them a Steven Seagal style knee thrust right in the scrotum sac.

And like the comedic gift that keeps on giving, one of the loudest tweeters screeching about The Great Obama Umbrella Scandal of 2013 is none other than the Wasilla Hillbilly herself:

Sarah Palin · 3,548,217 like thisYesterday at 5:26pm · Scandalous Hat TrickMr. President, when it rains it pours, but most Americans hold their own umbrellas.

Caribou Barbie, like many right wing twits, really has no concept of what internet archiving means as far as the eternal preservation of internet media content goes. Case in point -- here is a photo of Queen Nanook of The North with her own umbrella attendant:

They are such immature, petulant, and pathetic losers. They make The Gadfly ill just thinking about them.

Many musical seasons ago, during the silly hair band era of the mid 1980's, a young, long haired, dirty hippie Gadfly lived with some peeps of whom one was the "manager" of a local rock band that went by the name 'Ragdoll.'

They weren't that great of a group, musically speaking, but they put on a decent (as in loud) stage show and had a nice little following of groupie babes who followed them around on the Sunset strip to clubs like Gazzarri's, The Troubador and The Whisky a Go-Go. The Gadfly, by virtue of his friendship with the "manager" got free passes to many of these clubs over a year or so period of time before the group and the "manager" went their separate ways. Oh those were the fun, naughty days of summer . . . .

Anyhow, The Gadfly ran across this video of an ass-kicking Australian group named 'Ragdoll' on one of his favorite hard rock websites and thought he would share it as a nice way to shake the work week's cobwebs out of you, the dear reader's, minds. Enjoy:

Since September, Republicans have claimed the Obama administration covered up the truth about the attack on the American consulate in Benghazi, Libya by altering the talking points Susan Rice used on the Sunday morning talk shows. To bolster the story, Republicans misquoted or significantly embellished the emails officials used to draft Rice’s remarks, the CBS Evening News reported Thursday.

CBS News’ Major Garrett confirmed that it was a GOP source who leaked the altered emails.

Jon Stewart channels The Gadfly's psyche as it pertains to the state of cable news - and specifically their craven pandering to the lowest common denominator zombie viewer:

Kripes -- The Gadfly cannot even predict what he is going to have for breakfast tomorrow morning much less prognosticate the candidate layout of the 2016 Presidential primaries!

But this is why The Gadfly tunes out these media outlets as far as their being sources of reliable news and knowledge. That being said, they do have one redeeming trait -- their buffoonery does make for some entertaining blog posts when warranted.

WASHINGTON -- A top Federal Reserve policymaker has raised the possibility that rising inequality may restrain economic growth for several years in a sign the central bank may be worried about the increasing gap between the rich and poor.

“In my view, the large and increasing amount of inequality in income and wealth, which has been an ongoing development for decades, may have exacerbated the crisis,” Fed governor Sarah Bloom Raskin said Thursday in a speech delivered in Washington. “More research is required to determine whether it may also pose a significant headwind to the recovery from the crisis for years to come.”

You mean that the evisceration of the middle class and the reciprocal swelling of the ranks of working poor means that the consumer class likely will not have enough cash left over, after paying for their basic living expenses and life necessities, to purchase all those nifty material objects and entertainment services/products that American companies are peddling??

OH WOES IS US!!

Dear reader - please forgive The Gadfly for treating this very serious subject with such a semingly carefree, chuckling air of frivolity. The Gadfly is actually just unbelievably aghast that people in high places of government leadership could actually be so fucking tone deaf to the suffering that has been going on in this country, for decades, which can and has been directly attributable to the cancerous effects of accelerated economic inequality across the nation.

And no -- no "more research" is fucking needed to "determine whether it may also pose a significant headwind to the recovery . . ." - good lord that quote alone makes The Gadfly's head spin around like Linda Blair's mop top in that infamous scene from 'The Exorcist.":

Sigh . . . The Gadfly supposes that he should take some solace in knowing that at least one high ranking, public policy maker has tacitly acknowledged that their "possibly" might be a connection between national economic malaise and the increasing wealth gap between the haves and have nots.

Thursday, May 16, 2013

It appears that Dick Cheney has decided to try his hand at topical comedy. And true to comedic form, Slicky Dick took front stage and center at cable's premier comedy club, Fox "News", to regale his brain dead fan base with this instantly classic belly laugh:

The man who was vice president during the Sept. 11 attacks that killed nearly 3,000 people in 2001 says that last year's attack in Benghazi was "one of the worst incidences, frankly, that I can recall in my career."

In an interview on Fox News on Monday, former Vice President Dick Cheney accused President Barack Obama and his administration of lying about the attack in Benghazi and then staging a cover up to hide the lies.

"They lied," Cheney said. "They claimed it was because of a demonstration video so that they wouldn’t have to admit it was really all about their incompetence."

"I think it’s one of the worst incidents, frankly, that I can recall in my career," he insisted. "If they told the truth about Benghazi, that it was a terrorist attack by an Al-Qaeda-led group, it would destroy the confidence that was the basis of his campaign for reelection."

"They were trying to perpetuate this fiction that there was no terrorist threat because they got bin Laden and that's a lie."

Fox edited the interview as they are wont to do when they are propagandizing on behalf of their boys, but The Gadfly has no doubt whatsoever that the entire duplicitous interview was accompanied by the sound of this in the background:

Now that's "Fair and Balanced!"

----TFG

**UPDATE**:

Shortly after putting up this post, The Gadfly stumbled across this pic while surfing the intertoobs - and deemed it entirely appropriate for the subject matter herein :

Wednesday, May 15, 2013

In The Gadfly's humble opinion, of the trifecta of "scandals" currently dogging the Obama administration, and which are being flogged like a quarter horse being buggy whipped on his way to the finish line, only the AP phone records subpoena event is even semi-worthy of the dreaded term "scandal."

The Gadfly refuses to designate the AP story a full-fledged scandal for two reasons. One - contrary to the uniformed puppetoon talking heads on Fox "News" and the right wing media screechers, what the DOJ did in this case is in no way, shape or form unprecedented. I've heard a bunch of wingnut blowhards on teevee and the radio foaming at the mouth claiming that this is the worst scandal ever and wondering what the dire ramifications would have been had such a dastardly deed occurred during the Bush/Cheney regime. Oops - hold there just a moment, somebody is calling The Gadfly on the Wayback Bat Phone with an update. . . . . .

. . . . well - that call was from someone who kindly reminds The Gadfly that this exact same subpoenaing of reporters phone calls did indeed occur on Bush's watch. Observe:

The Federal Bureau of Investigation improperly obtained calling records for more than 3,500 telephone accounts from 2003 to 2006 without following any legal procedures, according to a newly disclosed report by the Justice Department’s inspector general.

Instead, according to the 289-page report, F.B.I. agents informally requested the records from employees of three unidentified telephone companies who were stationed inside a bureau communications office.

Based on nothing more than e-mail messages or scribbled requests on Post-it notes, the phone employees turned over customer calling records, the report said.

On some occasions, the phone employees allowed the F.B.I. to upload call records to government databases. On others, they allowed agents to view records on their computer screens, a practice that became known as “sneak peeks.”

Moreover, the report found that the F.B.I. improperly uploaded into its databases large numbers of calling records without determining whether they were relevant to an investigation.On four occasions, the bureau made inaccurate statements to a court that authorizes national security wiretaps about how it had obtained calling records, the report said.

And agents twice improperly gained access to reporters’ calling records as part of leak investigations.

The Gadfly willfully acknowledges that just because Bush did it too, it does not at all excuse the Obama administration's comparable transgressions. The matter needs to be looked in to - but not by the likes of that ratfucking greaseball Darrell Issa (R - Car Thief; Arsonist).

As it is, the primary question The Gadfly has for his right wing, conservative friends is -- can any one of you finger pointers tell The Gadfly how many Congressional hearings were held investigating the Bush phone records subpoenas and how many people were prosecuted for those abuses of power?

♫♫ ♫ ♫ ♫ [CRICKETS CHIRPING] ♫ ♫ ♫ ♫♫

That's what The Gadfly fucking thought.

Meanwhile --- while the GOP is busy as bees trying to ratfuck Obama, this bit of news came out:

After years of trillion-dollar annual deficits, federal red ink is lessening – and pace of the decline now looks much quicker than forecasters thought it would be.

It sure is convenient that good news about the national debt is being drowned out by the screeching of partisan political banshees marching down Pennsylvania Avenue with their pitchforks and torches - dontcha think?

So that my wingnut pals can fully understand the meaning of CS Monitor article, The Gadfly will type this explanation extremely slowly. Simply put - the big, bad federal deficit is shrinking faster than the few remaining percentage points that still constitutes Dick Cheney's approval rating.

Which begs the question of course - since the deficit is shrinking and forecast to continue shrinking, is there any possibility of Congress (led by the GOP) perhaps spending some of the people's time and money working on legislation to get Americans back to work? Or on legislative remedies to shore up Social Security and Medicare? Or putting the money back from the draconian cuts of the sequester which have harmed the livelihoods of many? Or possibly working with out President on fixing our economy? Or passing a sensible gun background checks law? Restoring the devastating sequester cuts? Immigration reform? Hell - The Gadfly would even settle for the bastards holding a few hearings grilling the bankers and Wall St. honchos about their mafioso criminality in crashing the world economy!?

But none of that is going to happen is it? The bottom line is -- it's going to be a long, long, hot summer -- a summer not at all dissimilar to The Great Clinton Penis Hunt of 1998.